{"id":236626,"date":"2025-10-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=236626"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:35:39","slug":"cyber-attacks-exam-fees-and-digital-visionmeet-the-new-head-of-cambridge-ocr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/cyber-attacks-exam-fees-and-digital-visionmeet-the-new-head-of-cambridge-ocr\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-attacks, exam fees and digital vision\u2026meet the new head of Cambridge OCR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exam boards are playing a \u201cgame of cat and mouse\u201d with cyber criminals and an attack could jeopardise a future exam series, the new head of Cambridge OCR<\/a> has warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myles McGinley, who took over as managing director of UK education at Cambridge University Press and Assessment last month, also called on the government and exams regulator Ofqual to set out a \u201cvision\u201d for the future of digital assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending recent rises in exam fees charged to schools, McGinley said boards were working \u201cin an environment where costs of our suppliers have gone up, but also actually the threats that we are dealing with now are quite different from a cyber security perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if there was a risk that a cyber-attack could jeopardise a future exam series, McGinley said: \u201cOf course. I mean, you look at banks, supermarkets, Transport for London\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019re not immune to hack threat\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not immune. We work in the same environment, and we take it incredibly seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The education sector has been rocked by some recent serious cyber-attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School staff data such as passport and national insurance numbers was exposed in a \u201cmalicious\u201d attack on the software supplier of Single Central Record (SCR)<\/a>. The company says it manages more than 350,000 staff records at 1,500 schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing the preventative work as a \u201cgame of cat and mouse\u201d, McGinley said Cambridge OCR had a \u201clot of technology that\u2019s in place to secure our whole estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive, co-ordinated effort,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes increased monitoring of threats and training for staff and schools around vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCR also measures its work against the government-backed \u201ccyber essentials plus\u201d kitemark, which requires organisations to put controls in place such as malware protection and multi-factor identification. The board has also launched a vocational qualification in cyber security and networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Digital experimentation phase\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But, just as technology represents a huge threat to the exams system, it also offers huge potential benefits in the form of on-screen assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGinley believes we need to be \u201cclear on the opportunity and the benefits\u201d during what he calls the \u201cexperimentation phase\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cIf you go into an exam, you are using a computer, you are coding live, you are seeing whether something works or not. You are able to change variables, parameters. It has a positive washback on teaching and learning as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also \u201cthe potential digital has to solve some of the problems that people are talking about within the system. If you think about the growth we have seen with anxiety, with special educational needs\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OCR has been \u201csurprised how empowering\u201d it was to give students greater \u201cability to control their assessment experience in the way that is needed for them\u201d, for example by changing font sizes and text colour or using an on-screen timer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we really need [is a] bit of vision about the future of assessment, and that is what we are trying to talk about. But we need to be doing this nationally, i.e. from government, regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels like there are lots of separate conversations going on and individual pitches being made, whereas we could do with a bit of momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial burden of exams ‘very real’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But McGinley acknowledges there are concerns \u2013 about security and access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can we be confident that a student who doesn’t have these devices at home is getting enough practice in a setting?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could digital exams have a cost benefit for schools? He accepted the \u201cvery real\u201d financial burden of exams on schools and colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether digital can be the silver bullet for that would, I think, depend on the speed of transition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital comes with \u201ca different cost\u201d. Hardware, for example. And it \u201calso possibly comes with a scale problem of having computers available all at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I imagine will happen is that we’ll have a mix of paper and digital around for a long time while we work out these things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are other benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The huge number of GCSE English and maths re-sits means some colleges \u201chave to close from a teaching and learning perspective\u201d while the tests are taking place. More students also need access arrangements, such as different coloured paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the exam fees. There are lots of other things associated with doing an exam. Just printing out all those coloured papers \u2013 it all adds up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo that’s where digital could have potential, not just giving a student a better assessment experience, but reducing some of the cost and administrative burden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vocational qualification warning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Raised in Bromley, south-east London, McGinley attended a state primary and then St Dunstan\u2019s College in Catford. Descended from a farming community in Ireland, he described the \u201cbreezy old Victorian building\u201d as \u201cso alien\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He studied English and history at Salford University, then taught English in Berlin before returning to work at Oxford University Press and spent 18 years at Pearson. He joined Cambridge in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambridge OCR remains a small player in England\u2019s GCSE market. For three years it has held a market share of 6.7 per cent for the key stage 4 qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welsh board Eduqas recently announced it had overtaken OCR as the third of four exam boards for the qualifications in England, with 7.1 per cent of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But its share in some qualifications is much larger. It retains just over 20 per cent of the A-level market in England, third to Edexcel\u2019s 28 per cent and AQA\u2019s 46 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambridge OCR\u2019s international arm is also much larger than its English operations, and the board has \u201creally grown\u201d in vocational qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGinley thinks the focus of the last and current government on ensuring \u201cconfidence\u201d in vocational qualifications\u201d is \u201cabsolutely right, we haven\u2019t shied away from that\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cthe trick is not to lose the essence of what a vocational qualification is doing. It’s doing something different\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCR has benefited from a \u201cgrowth in that mixed curriculum\u201d in sixth form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking those combinations \u2013 maths A-level, physics A-level plus an engineering qualification that\u2019s vocational. That gives you all the academic underpinning you need, but also those skills around teamwork and design and things you might need for engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are teenagers more interested in vocational qualifications? McGinley thinks \u201ckids are more savvy, certainly than I was. I just wanted to do something I enjoyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I think they have a real view. I’ve got two lads of my own. One is doing film production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe wants to be practical, whether it’s script writing or editing or doing cinematography, because that’s the industry he wants to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology has \u201creally opened up industries to kids in a way that wasn’t the case for me when I was at school. They can see these things in action. They’ve got opportunities to make money themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You start to create perverse incentives\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the final report of the government\u2019s curriculum and assessment review imminent, McGinley is \u201cmindful\u201d of the \u201ccapacity that\u2019s in the system to change\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cat the same time, there are parts that do need change\u201d. For example, the \u201cwash back\u201d on the rest of the curriculum by the size of GCSE maths and science qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is supportive of plans, reported by Schools Week<\/em>, for reading checks during key stage 3. He would also support a check on numeracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don’t have a picture nationally about what’s really going on that you can rely on. That’s\u2026 the value of a standardised assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he acknowledges \u201cconcerns about the implementation\u201d, arguing it should not be a \u201cperformance measure\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis touches on some of the challenges with the exam system as well, the degree to which our system is high stakes. You start to create some perverse incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor an assessment to work as well as it can, I think we would like to see some heat taken out of that environment for a school or college, so they can focus on teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Myles McGinley talks to Schools Week about his hopes for the future of curriculum and assessment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":236531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[73,155],"post-theme":[2345],"class_list":["post-236626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a-level","tag-gcses","post-theme-assessment"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t